PokéHearts: The Chosen One's Fate And Destiny
by Aoi Hyoudou
Summary: One year after his defeat in the final round of the Unova Conference, Ash spent most of his time at home thinking about his future. Soon his entire life would turn upside down when his world is consumed by the Heartless. With his world gone, Ash is thrust into a whole new adventure where he will come across new foes, new friends, and new worlds.
1. Prologue

**Aoi Hyoudou: **As you may or may not know this, I'm taking a small break from **Operation Aura **to do this story. I was once again inspired by _Auriansmule_ to do another Pokémon/Kingdom Hearts crossover story after re-reading his **Pokémon: Keyblade Masters **and **Pokémon: Keyblade Masters the Beginning**. So, please give him some credit as some of his ideas will be used. This story along with **Operation Aura **will be my two main projects that I will continue to work on throughout 2012. Hopefully, it will go well. So, please enjoy the first chapter of **PokéHearts: The Chosen One's Fate And Destiny**

**Disclaimer: **I do not own anything in this story, except for Ash's Nobody (Xásh) who will be appearing from time to time in the story plot.

**Rated: **T

**Pairing (s): **Ash/?

**Summary: **One year after his defeat in the final round of the Unova Conference, Ash spent most of his time at home thinking about his future. Soon his entire life would turn upside down when his world is consumed by the Heartless. With his world gone, Ash is thrust into a whole new adventure where he will come across new foes, new friends, and new worlds. While at the same time, piecing together old memories he once had to bring forth an event that will lead him to his ultimate fate and destiny. Set after Kingdom Hearts II and before Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

* * *

**Dive into the Darkness **

{…}

'_What to do…' _a familiar black-haired teen pondered while slowly munching on a piece of meat that was sticking out of his closed mouth, staring off into space with his cheek leaning on his palm and elbow propped on the dinner table. _'What to do…'_

"Ash?" a familiar female voice called out to him.

'…_Now that I think about it, I did go through every possible region out there. So, what's left for me to do?'_

"Ash…"

'_Hmm, I could always try Kanto or Johto again. That would be something.' _

"Ash…!"

'_Or maybe I should go pay Iris and Cilan a little visit since I haven't seen them for a year now, not since I lost to Stephan in the finals of the Unova Conference,_' the young teenager by the name of Ash Ketchum thought for a brief moment. _'I wonder what they are up to now.' _He took a short pause. _'I'm guessing Cilan is back to being a Gym leader while Iris is probably training hard to be the best Dragon M-'_

"Ash!"

Snapping out of his trail of thoughts, Ash immediately jerked his undivided attention over to his mother who was frowning deeply at him with her arms crossed and pressed against her chest. "What is it, Mom?" he asked her after nearly choking on his piece of meat.

"What do you mean, 'what is it?'" his mother queried angrily. Her son slightly flinched at her tone. "I've been calling you for three minutes now," Delia told her only child.

Ash gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Mom. I guess I got caught up in my thoughts," he replied softly.

After hearing that, the young mother's anger quickly subsided. She stared at her boy for the longest time and could tell right away that he had been going through a lot lately. Ever since his loss at the Unova Conference and the departure of both Iris and Cilan, he always seemed to be depressed and lonely. She guessed that a whole year apart from his old friends and traveling around could do that to someone - especially to her son. But at the same time, the year apart did help her Ashy mature a little. He was no longer that arrogant, reckless, and stubborn boy from six years ago who had just started out on his Pokémon journey. No. He was far different from that. Ash was now a mature young man. Sure, sometimes he acted goofy and reckless but only on certain occasions. The young mother still couldn't believe her baby boy was sixteen and going to turn seventeen in a few months' time. In her eyes, he was still ten, no matter how old he was. But that wasn't the case when it came to his features.

Her son's body was mildly-built, probably due to his hard training over the years with his Pokémon. His messy black hair was slightly longer now. In her opinion, he looked much better without his traditional cap on his head. He still had those little Z's under his eyes and on his cheeks. And since he was not in usual traveling clothes, he was just wearing a plain black T-shirt with blue jeans and red and black shoes. Aside from his features, he was now a lot taller than he was a couple years ago.

Her Ash was such a unique and amazing person. And since his mood hadn't changed one bit during lunch, maybe an early birthday present from her would lighten his mood and boost his spirit a little. "Hey, honey," Delia called out to her son again who had just got done eating his lunch.

"Yeah, Mom?" The raven-haired teenager quickly turned his attention right back to his mother who unexpectedly pulled out some kind of rectangular box from her pocket and held it out towards him. "And what is that?" he asked curiously as he stared at the box with interest.

Delia giggled at her naïve son. "I know it's a little early but I decided to give you your birthday present now!" she exclaimed with a warm smile.

Ash's eyes widened with great surprise. "What? Really?" Then the young male looked at his sudden birthday gift within his mother's grasp for a few more seconds before turning his gaze right back to her. "But, Mom, I don't think I can accept it until-"

"Oh, don't worry about that, honey," Delia abruptly cut her boy off with a wave of her hand. Her son stared at her incredulously. "One little present won't hurt you, will it?" The Pallet Town prodigy did not have an answer to that. "So just take it sweetie."

Ash hesitated for a few moments until he finally gave in and accepted his birthday present from his mother with a deep sigh. Delia smiled happily that Ash had finally accepted her gift. With that, she gave him an affectionate hug without warning which of course made him groan with a deep blush.

"Mom!"

Delia could only giggle at her disgruntled and embarrassed son as she embraced him once more despite his protests and whining. Once the young mother was done embarrassing her only child and moved away from him, Ash slowly lifted the top part of the box up before looking inside as to see what his beloved parent had gotten him this time. He hoped it wasn't something girly. To his surprise, it wasn't. Inside the box was a brand new blue and white Pokégear.

"Wow!" the young prodigy said in awe as he picked up his new device from the case and studied it closely. That was the very first time his mother had actually got him something that wasn't clothes or pink plush dolls. He could easily see himself using it a lot in the future. "Thanks, Mom," he breathed gratefully.

Delia was so happy that she was able to boost her boy's mood with her gift. "It's no trouble at all, honey." She smiled and then added, "Knowing you, you will probably need it in case you decide to go on another journey or visit some of your friends."

"You know me all too well, Mom." Ash grinned at his mother goofily. "And I promise that I'll take good care of it." He then started to play and fiddle around with his new Pokégear.

"You better, mister," Delia playfully teased her son.

Ash laughed heartily. "Don't worry, I will."

After spending an hour or so with his mother, the young Pokémon Trainer decided that it was time for him to head off to Professor Oak's laboratory to check on Pikachu and the rest his of Pokémon from the various regions. "Well-" He slowly stood up on his feet and pocketed away his brand new Pokégear into his pocket. "-I'm off."

"Oh, where are you going honey?" Delia asked her son as she picked up the dishes off the dinner table and walked over to the sink and set them down.

"I'm going to the lab for a little while," Ash answered. "I'll be back before dinner."

"All right. Well, have fun," the young mother said with a smile.

Once Delia gave her big boy another affectionate hug, Ash left through the back door and headed off to Professor Oak's place on the dirt path. With her future Pokémon Master finally gone, the young mother slowly went back to the sink and prepared to do the dishes. But before she could even get started on them, a sad and regretful thought suddenly came to her. It was something that involved her dear son and a secret that she has been hiding for such a long time since her 'boy' was five years old.

"If only I had told him the truth…" she muttered to herself in a very sad tone.

The truth? About what?

While the brown-haired woman was completely lost in her thoughts over her past decisions and mistakes, multiple shadowy figures with long antennas and creepy yellow eyes started to surface and emerge from the kitchen floor.

The nightmare had begun.

{…}

The walk to Professor Oak's laboratory was one of the few things Ash _actually_ tolerated and didn't complain about during his life and career as a Pokémon Trainer. The young prodigy really liked walking to the Pokémon researcher's place. Not because it was a short distance away from his house. No. It was mainly due to him being used to it. The fact that it gave him all the time in the world to enjoy the fresh air and wonderful scenery around him was an extra bonus.

As Ash continued to walk down the dirt path with Oak's lab almost within sight, he unexpectedly came across something that was a little strange and out of the ordinary. Just up ahead, the young Pokémon trainer spotted a mysterious figure in a black coat. He was quite baffled as to why someone would wear a heavy coat like that on a hot, sunny, and clear day like this. Not wanting to judge, Ash moved along and noticed that the figure in black was in his way. Seeing this, the raven-haired teen quickly stopped in his tracks and studied the mysterious figure closely. He couldn't tell if this person was a he or she because the hood was casting a shadow over the stranger's face. He was getting a weird vibe from the newcomer though, one that told him to be very careful around this person.

Listening to his feelings, Ash approached the shady character with extreme caution. "Um, excuse me." The figure in black didn't budge from its spot. "I don't want to sound rude but-" The Pokémon Trainer stared at the suspicious individual who he knew must be staring right back at him underneath that hood. "-you're in the way. Could you please step aside?"

"…" The mysterious character did not heed a single word from the teen's mouth. It continued to stand still.

Ash blinked. "Uh, hello, are you even listening?" he asked the hooded figure who still refused to make any attempts whatsoever to respond or move from its position.

Seeing that this was leading him nowhere, the Kanto native could only sigh in frustration. Whoever this person was, he/she was really getting on his nerves. He had asked nicely and yet the stranger still refused to cooperate with him. Figures. If he were his old self from a few years ago, he would've started yelling by now when dealing with people like this. But time had changed that facet of his personality. Sure, he had been that way with AJ at first and most recently Paul but that was it.

"Fine. If you won't cooperate with me-" The young prodigy stared hard at the motionless stranger. "-then I'll just go around you and completely ignore you at the same time. Would that make you happy?" the raven-haired male asked sarcastically.

"…" As expected, the mysterious figure did nothing but stand still like a statue.

Shaking his head, Ash decided to take his leave now before he wasted any more of his time with this weirdo. But before he could even go around the figure, the shady character abruptly stopped him with a hand before pointing its finger right past the teen's shoulder over at something that involved the sky.

The Kanto native did not know if he should turn around and look at what the hooded figure was pointing at. For all he knew, it could be a trick to lower his guard. But for some odd reason, his gut was telling him that he should look anyway. Maybe it wasn't a trick. Maybe the figure in black was trying to tell him something that might be important.

After a few moments of debating whether or not he should look over his shoulder, Ash finally made a decision. Quickly, the young Pokémon Trainer twisted around and looked up to the sky where he took notice that the once clear and sunny atmosphere was now shrouded in darkness, not by storm clouds, but by pure, unnatural darkness.

'_What the heck is going on here?' _the raven-haired teen wondered with tiny beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead. _'A second ago, it was clear as day, but now...' _He gritted his teeth and clenched his hands into fists.

Ash didn't know what was going on, but he was getting a bad feeling that something unreal was taking place in his hometown, if not the entire world. He wondered if the figure in the black coat behind him had anything to do with this mess. With that thought running through his mind, he immediately turned right back around and faced forward where he found that the mysterious character in black had disappeared.

'_What the…?' _The young Pokémon Trainer quickly looked back and forth around the area for any sign of its whereabouts, but to no avail. _'Where did it-' _

"A~h!" a loud female scream echoed in the air.

Ash's eyes widened in fear at the sound of his mother's bloody scream. She was in deep trouble. "Oh, no! Mom!" As fast as his legs could take him, the Kanto native quickly turned around and ran towards his house. There was no telling what he was going to encounter at his place. For all he knew, he might be running into a trap. But he didn't care. As long as his family was safe and sound, nothing really mattered at that point, not even his own life.

{…}

"Mom!"

***BAM***

Without any hesitation whatsoever, the sixteen-year-old teenager barged into his house through the front door. He immediately looked around the living room and noticed that his mother was nowhere in sight. "Mom, where are you?!" he called out, hoping he would get a response in return; he received no response. The house was deathly silent.

Panicking, Ash ran up the stairs. If his mother wasn't in the living room, maybe she was upstairs. At least, he hoped that she was. But there was no guarantee on that. Once the raven-haired male made his way up to the second floor, he started to go through every single room including his and his mother's but there was still no sign of her anywhere. _'Where is she?' _he thought worriedly. If his mother wasn't upstairs, then where else could she be? The only places the Kanto native had yet to check were the kitchen and the backyard.

With those places in mind, Ash quickly descended down the stairs and hurried into the kitchen first where he looked around and noticed right away that there was no one around. He chewed his bottom lip. It looks like the backyard was the only place left. But before he could even head out to the backyard, he was stopped dead in his tracks when he felt a cold chill run down his spine. He couldn't explain it, but the sudden atmosphere around him quickly shifted. Soon several shadows around him started to move around. They began to take on multiple forms of shadowy creatures with long antennas and yellow eyes.

'_What the…?' _The young Pokémon Trainer took several steps back as the black creatures were blocking the back door. _'What are these things, Pokémon?' _he pondered, surprised. Soon more of them started to appear, eventually surrounding him.

"Get away from me!" Ash shouted at the unknown creatures which were now advancing forward towards him. Beads of sweat started to run down from his face. What could he possibly do to get out of the current situation?

Acting quickly, the Kanto native scanned around the area for any sort of weapon he could use to fend off these strange creatures. His eyes immediately fell on a broomstick that was leaning against the refrigerator. With no time to waste, he lunged towards the object and picked it up, wielding it in both hands as a makeshift sword. One of the creatures suddenly sprang at him, but he was ready for it. He quickly swung his broomstick, knocking the creature back a few feet but otherwise not hurting it at all. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed another jump at his back. Ash tried to turn fast enough on his left foot to intercept it but failed.

"Ugh!" Ash gritted his teeth when the creature slashed his shoulder with its claw, but he was lucky enough to dodge most of the damage thanks to his experience over the years on evading Pokémon attacks, Team Rocket, and of course… Bianca!

But there was no time to rest. More and more of those creatures continued to go on the offensive. The young prodigy of Pallet Town tried to fight them off, but it quickly became obvious that his efforts were only delaying the inevitable.

'_What can I do now?' _the young teenager thought tiredly as he was covered in scratches with tears all over his clothes from the attacks. _'Nothing I do is working!' _He was starting to lose hope, but there was no way he would give up now. Giving up would only result in these things refocusing their attention on the innocent inhabitants of Pallet Town. He could not let that happen! He would fight until the very end, to buy time if nothing else.

Just as Ash dodged a swift slash attack from one of the creatures, some of them tackled him from his blind spot, sending him crashing to the floor where every single one of those black creatures jumped on top of him. "G-Get off of me!" he shouted with a strained voice, struggling to break free.

In response to this outburst, some of them sank their razor-sharp claws into his body, causing him to cry out in pain. Soon the malice-filled creatures became shadows once again and began pulling their struggling victim into a puddle of shadow, Ash dimly noting that they were sinking into the floor! Not wanting to quit, Ash continued to fight and resist the hold that the shadows had on him until he saw everything around him turn pitch black.

As Ash slowly sank into darkness, the last thing he saw before everything went black was the figure in the black coat watching from the open back door a few feet away from him.

{…}

He was sinking. He was slowly sinking into a dark void. Ash also noticed that it was becoming hard to breathe, the darkness stifling his senses. He could even imagine that it was consuming his soul and body.

His past memories of his life…

His friends…

His Pokémon…

The legends of his world that he befriended…

His mother…

Those precious images were flashing before his very eyes as he continued to sink deeper and deeper into the abyss.

His eyes were getting heavy. He didn't know how much time he had left before he would slip into unconsciousness. But if he had time for it… just enough time for him to say one thing, to say that he was sorry.

Sorry that he couldn't protect his world…

Sorry that he couldn't protect his friends and family…

And most of all, that he was sorry that he couldn't protect those who believed in him and needed him the most…

He was no hero…

He was no Chosen One…

He was a… failure.

As Ash slowly lost consciousness, a soft hand reached out and grasped his hand before pulling him up towards a bright light.

* * *

**A/N: Hehe. Guess who was the figure in the black coat and the one who grabbed Ash's hand at the end. There are no wrong guesses! Now, I'm off to write the next chapter! So… please enjoy and don't forget to post a review. It helps! Until next time, peace out!**

**P.S. - Give the proofreading and editing credit to my beta-readers, **_Tendou Souji_ **and **_Vandenbz_**.**

**Aoi Hyoudou **(formerly known as Johan07)


	2. Fateful Encounters

**Aoi Hyoudou: **I want to thank everyone who read the first chapter and left feedback on it. I really appreciate it and for that I'm going to reply to your guys' reviews pretty soon. Although… it will **ONLY **be for this story. So, don't get used to seeing me responding to some of your reviews in some of the chapters. It's a once in a lifetime thing unless I decided to keep doing it for my other stories. We will have to wait and see.

* * *

**Fateful Encounters**

{…}

"…Ugh." A soft groan escaped from Ash's mouth. The Pokémon Trainer slowly opened his eyes as his blurry vision became clear. Soon he took notice that he was lying flat on his stomach on something, a hard surface of some sort.

Slowly, the young prodigy of Pallet Town pushed himself into a sitting posture before glancing around his new surroundings with extreme caution. The background was completely black and eerie. And the only light that was keeping his surroundings illuminated was the unnatural ball of light that was shining high overhead.

Ash sighed deeply. What was this strange place and why was he here? Rather than asking these questions to himself, he decided to scan around the area again, hoping to find some answers. His eyes eventually fell on the circular, stained-glass platform that he had been sitting on from the very start. "What the!-?"

Immediately, the young teenager shot straight up to his feet and stared at the floor. It was quite beautiful. The artwork on it was very colorful and realistic. It felt like Ash was staring right at his own face. In fact, he really was. There was a big image of him wearing his old Kanto traveling outfit leaning against a tree, asleep on the stained-glass pillar. But that wasn't all. There were five more images depicted and they all looked awfully familiar. Each one was in a small individual circle, unlike Ash's picture that was taking up most of the space.

One was a small yellow rodent with long pointy ears.

One was an adult woman with brown hair that was tied in a ponytail with a green hair band.

One was a spiky-haired teen who wearing a white lab coat with a smug yet friendly smirk on his face.

One was an elderly man who also was wearing a white lab coat.

And the last one was a dark green-haired male with a red-orange headband.

It was no big surprise that Ash immediately recognized who these five were. After all, they were some of the individuals who had played a major role in his life and growth. _'Pikachu… Mom…Gary… Professor Oak… and Tracey.' _But still, he didn't have a single clue as to why their faces were on the stained-glass platform. What was the reason behind this?

While the baffled teenager continued to study the stained-glass artwork of his family, friends, and of course himself, he was completely unaware about his previous injuries that he suffered at the hands of _those _shadow creatures. They were completely healed and gone. His clothes on the other hand were still torn up from the last attacks. But that didn't matter right now. He had other concerns to worry about on his mind. One of which he wasn't fully aware of yet.

Sneaking right behind the ignorant male was one of those yellow-eyed shadow creatures that had appeared back in Pallet Town. Step by step, it approached its oblivious victim with stealth and cunning. Once it got close enough, it pounced. Fortunately, Ash and the creature weren't alone.

"Look out!" an unfamiliar female voice called out.

Ash had heard similar warnings in the past and reacted accordingly, quickly dropping to the ground and rolling away. The creature's claws barely missed his head. It repositioned itself after landing and prepared to attack again as Ash got back to his feet. But before the dark being could try again, it abruptly dissolved into many black particles after being cut in half by what Ash could only describe to be some sort of flying discus or boomerang. It certainly didn't look like any Pokémon attack he'd ever seen!

The Kanto native stood still in complete surprise. Ash had no idea what had just happened. One moment, the shadow creature was going to attack him again and the next it abruptly disappeared into black particles. The weapon that had saved him had also vanished. He was completely lost, but at the same time full of relief that his life was no longer in danger. Although something was still bothering him after the dark creature vanished in defeat and that was - who was responsible for its demise?

In least than three seconds, the young teenager got his answer when he abruptly heard someone let out a huge sigh of relief before speaking up. "Are you okay?"

Ash immediately looked forward once he noticed that the worry was directed at him. He came face to face with a young slender woman with short blue hair. She was around his age, maybe a little bit older. The Pokémon trainer from Pallet Town didn't have a single clue as to where she came from, but he was glad that she had showed up. If it wasn't for her, he wouldn't be alive right now if not badly injured. And for that, Ash really appreciated her help. But something was still bothering him. Well, make that two things actually.

For one, what was the young female holding in her right hand? It looked like some kind of giant grayish house key but in a form of a sword with a keychain of some sort attached to it. Was it some sort of weapon? By the looks of it, it probably was. But soon it suddenly vanished from within her grasp in the blink of an eye. The young prodigy didn't know if he was hallucinating or what, but he decided not to think about it too much and saved it for another time.

As for his second concern, he didn't have a single clue what the mysterious woman was wearing. Her strange outfit was so, so out of the ordinary yet appealing. Sure, during his previous journeys across Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova, he came across many strange people with unique and bizarre attires, but this particular outfit took the cake. Her getup was quite revealing, showing off her young and beautiful bare skin, not to mention her well-developed chest.

The Kanto native's cheeks burned red-hot when he realized that he was staring directly at the young female's chest. He was trying desperately to keep his growing hormones in check to prevent any perverted thoughts from surfacing within his mind. But every time he tried to look away or stare down at his feet with fake interest, his eyes would always fall right back to the woman's breasts. _'Bad Ash bad! Don't look!' _The Pokémon trainer mentally scolded himself as he focused his attention elsewhere. _'For Arceus' sake, don't be like him. Don't be like Brock!' _The mere thought of him being like his perverted friend was seriously out of the question. The world was NOT ready for another Brock.

While Ash was going through a major phase, fighting away disturbing thoughts that were going through his head, it was clear that he didn't take any notice of the look of concern that he was getting from the female stranger. She could tell that he was feeling really uncomfortable and uneasy about something by his body language. She didn't know what it was, but she was going to find out.

The young beauty took a step forward and approached the distracted teen. "Um, are you feeling alright? You seem a bit-"

Realizing that she was talking to him, Ash started to panic a little. His face was now blazing hot as he looked around wildly for anything he could use as an excuse to get his act together. So far, the only logical thing the adolescent teenager could think of was to bring up the issue as to where he was and probably other topics that related to it. "I, uh, was wondering," he stuttered once he faced the female and stared at her, eye to eye. "…Where am I?" he asked.

The unnamed girl gave the uneasy teen a genuine smile. "You're currently in _your_ Station of Awakening." she simply answered.

Ash blinked in confusion. "My Station of what now?" He was completely lost.

The blue-haired beauty giggled. "Your Station of Awakening." she repeated. "It's a world within your dreams." she explained.

"Oh…" There was a deep pause. "…So, I'm dreaming?" The young female didn't respond to that. Soon Ash, for the first time took notice of his body. He quickly studied himself before turning his attention right back to the girl. "I guess that explains why I don't feel that much pain." He was referring to his past injuries that he had suffered from his previous encounter with those shadow creatures.

The mysterious woman shook her head. "Just because you're dreaming doesn't make this any less real." she told him. And soon she gestured her hand around the area. "This place is _your _heart."

"My heart…?" Now, the young prodigy of Pallet Town was more lost than ever.

The blue-haired female giggled which causes the raven-haired male to blush. "That's right and it's also part of your trial." she exclaimed.

"My trial?" The young beauty nodded her head. "My trial of what?" the Pokémon Trainer asked.

"It's a trial where-" But before the girl could even start explaining, her time with the young teen was over. Everything around them was starting to fade out. "Well, it looks like my time with you is up." she sighed dejectedly.

"Wait, what?" Ash didn't know what was going on until he noticed that the whole area was losing focus and becoming a big blur. "What's happening?"

"You're waking up."

Realizing this, the Kanto native seized his newly friend by her shoulders and stared at her. "But I still have so many questions I need to ask you." he said to her before noticing that she was slowly fading away as well.

"Don't worry," The blue-haired woman gave the adolescent male an assuring smile. "I will answer all your questions next time when we meet in your next sleep." she told him.

"Well, at least tell me your name." Ash gripped her shoulders firmly.

His new friend smiled and whispered. "_My name is…_"

Soon the girl disappeared and everything went blank.

{…}

"Hey! Are you okay? Speak to us." an unfamiliar voice called out.

"…Ugh." Ash groaned weakly. He didn't know who was calling out to him, but it sounded like a girl. And what did she mean by _us_?

The wearily teenager could hear the female voice let out a gasp. "You hear that, Squall! He's still alive!"

"I can see that Yuffie." The new voice belonged to a matured man. "And my name is Leon." the male voice corrected in an icy tone.

"Whatever makes you happy, _Squall_." the first voice exclaimed teasingly.

Ash didn't know what was going on, but he could tell that the two voices were arguing back and forth with each other. Soon he could hear the male one sighing in frustration. "Enough of this! We need to hurry and take him inside before any more of the Heartless show up."

"Oh, right." The female voice finally realized that this wasn't the time or place to argue. "Good idea."

Slowly, the Pokémon Trainer opened his eyes to see that his vision was quite hazy and blurry. He was tired and sleepy. His body was aching allover. He couldn't make out who were the two mysterious characters that were kneeling down to his fallen form. He didn't know if they were friends or foes, but he had a weird fuzzy feeling that he could trust them. Their presences felt somewhat assuring and not to mention a little familiar. Feeling that he couldn't do anything in his current state, Ash remained still and allowed the older figure to pick him off the ground with ease without a struggle.

The last thing the young male remembered before passing out were two faint images of two people in his mind, a seven-year-old hyperactive little girl and a fifteen-year-old arrogant teenager.

{…}

"Hey, wake up you sleepyhead." a familiar female voice called out to Ash with a giggle.

"Mm… five more minutes, Mom…" Ash mumbled softly in his sleep.

"Oh, now I'm your mother? That's so cute." the female voice teased.

Immediately, the Kanto native opened his eyes and shot straight up into a sitting position. He quickly scanned around the area before looking straight up where he saw the blue-haired woman standing over him with her face a little red from all the giggling she did. Ash blushed a little until he finally realized where he was again.

He was back. He was back at his Station of Awakening; or his 'heart' as the girl put it. But something was different now. To be specific, the stained-glass pillar from before had a few changes. For one, the image of himself was no longer in present. His mom, Gary, Tracey, Professor Oak, and Pikachu's pictures had vanished as well. Instead, they were all replaced by four new images in big circles. And all of them were girls.

One was a redheaded female with part of her hair tied into a pigtail.

The second one was a brown-haired female with a green and white bandana that had a Pokéball logo in the center on her head.

The next picture was a blue-haired female with a white beanie that had a pink Pokéball logo in the center on her head.

Last of all was a dark-tanned female with purple hair that was so massive, it was tied in a combination of pigtails and a ponytail.

Ash quickly recognized each of his former female traveling companions who, in some way, made huge differences in his life. _'Misty, May, Dawn, and Iris, huh?' _he pondered. _'What does all this mean?' _he asked himself as he goes into a deeper thought.

"Ahem."

But soon the young male would snap out of his thoughts when he heard a soft cough coming from the blue-haired woman who was still standing right in front of him with her arms crossed and pressed over her chest, annoyed at being ignored in favor of the floor. Realizing that he didn't mean to ignore her, he immediately turned his attention right back to her and apologized. "Uh, sorry I didn't mean to ignore you like that."

Giggling, the young woman quickly accepted the teen's poor apology before taking a seat right in front of him and offered her own apology to him. "And I should apologize to you too." Ash raised an eyebrow at her. "I didn't get the chance to tell you my name." She gave him an apologetic smile.

Noticing this, the Pokémon Trainer simply waved her off. "No worries," he reassured the female with a warm smile. "Uh…" But soon he realized that maybe he should take that back since he still didn't know her name.

Seeing that the Kanto native was having some trouble dealing with the situation, the young beauty stepped in and lent him a helping hand by introducing who she was. "Aqua. My name is Aqua." she greeted warmly with a smile. "And I'm a Keyblade Master." she added.

A pregnant silence fell between the two.

"A Key-what now?" Ash asked confusedly after breaking the awkward silence.

Aqua sighed deeply and shook her head. "It looks like I have a lot of explaining to do." Indeed, she did. "Where to start?" she murmured to herself.

{…}

After what it seemed like an hour or two inside Ash's 'heart', Aqua, a fallen Keyblade Master, an innocent soul trapped in the Realm of Darkness was finally done explaining her case to the Pokémon Trainer. She told him _everything_. Well, not _exactly _everything. Just the things that she already knew with some additional information from a different _source_.

"Whoa…" Ash was pretty much speechless. He didn't know what to say after hearing everything that Aqua told him about. It was beyond anything he had ever came across before.

She told him all about the Heartless and how they feared a legendary weapon known as the Keyblade. She also mentioned that when an individual lost his/her heart to the darkness, the person's heart would become a thing known as a Heartless. If the person's heart was strong, then a new type of being would be created from the leftover body, this type of being was identified as a Nobody.

The fallen Keyblade Master went on to explain to Ash the history of the Keyblades. Aqua even told him that other people could become Keyblade wielders and what are their duties were. She stated that there were a few ways to become one. One: a person must go through a set of trials during their sleep. Two: one who possesses a strong pure heart with a good will is chosen by the Keyblade itself. Or three: one must go through a Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony with a Keyblade wielder whose power was the level of a Keyblade Master.

In no time, Aqua mentioned that she was a Keyblade Master and that her other friends were also Keyblade wielders like her, but they had not gained the title of Keyblade Master just yet. Her life and those of her closest friends had been turned upside down when an old man by the name of Master Xehanort entered the picture. Thanks to him and his evil intentions of trying to obtain not only the χ-blade but Kingdom Hearts, her home world, her master, and most of all… her friends all suffered and in the process caused her to be trapped in the Realm of Darkness. She had no idea how long it had been since her entry into this particular place, she was waiting for a boy named Sora to come rescue her and her new friend who was also stuck in the Realm of Darkness.

But so far, nothing really special happened during her time. That is until the female Keyblade bearer brought up something interesting that caught Ash's full attention. During her stay in the Realm of Darkness, she said that she could sense something _eerie _calling out to her lingering spirit. She didn't know what it was, but she felt compelled to answer it. And the next thing she knew, she was in Ash's, uh, dream during their first meeting. She didn't know if it was fate or something else, but she had a strong feeling that there was a reason behind it. A reason why Ash and Aqua met. She guessed that it was so she could guide him. Unless there was a deeper purpose Aqua had yet to determine. She would just have to figure it out on her own time.

The blue-haired woman then revealed that when the Pokémon Trainer left at the end of their first meeting, her spirit returned to the Realm of Darkness where she had a small friendly chat with her _friend _about him. That's when things got a little interesting. She didn't know how, but her new _friend _knew a lot about Ash despite not meeting him first hand. Aqua told the young trainer that the only reason she knew his name now and everything about his background history was because of her friend's knowledge about the Kanto native which was big news to Ash's ears.

And with that, Aqua was done explaining all the little details to her young friend which eventually led to the present. A time where the Pokémon Trainer had once again been rendered speechless once she was finished.

Another awkward silence fell between the pair.

The female Keyblade bearer stared at the young trainer who was currently glancing down at his lap in deep thought. She frowned a little. She didn't know if she had made the right call or not, but it had to be done. He needed to know. Sure, it sounded like a lot to take in, but she knew that he'd be able to make sense of it soon enough.

While the Keyblade Master was waiting patiently for the Pokémon Trainer to make some sort of reaction, she suddenly took notice of a small smile that was tugging against the corner of his lips. She blinked a little. Aqua didn't know why Ash was smiling, but something was telling her that he had a reason.

"Hey Aqua?" the raven-haired male abruptly called out to her.

"Yes, Ash?" the blue-haired woman quickly answered as she continued to stare at the Kanto native who was still staring at his lap with the small smile still tugging against his lips.

"Thank you." Aqua was taken aback by this.

"For what?"

Still smiling, Ash looked up and stared at his new friend with his chocolate brown eyes. "For giving me an idea." he grinned at her.

Aqua blinked a few times. "Huh?" She still didn't quite understand what he was talking about.

Without warning, Ash seized Aqua by her shoulders before leaning his face forward towards hers which was making the female warrior feel really uncomfortable with her cheeks turning slightly red. "Aqua, I know I might be asking a lot from you, but-" The two stared at each other for the longest time until Ash broke the silence and continued. "-could you please perform the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony with me?" he asked hoping the female teenager would say yes.

"Huh?" Aqua was completely flabbergasted at the male's sudden request.

Sighing deeply, the Pokémon Trainer released his grip on the Keyblade Master's shoulders, but continued to give her his full attention. "I know that I'm not the kind of person who likes to take shortcuts, but-" He chewed his bottom lip before continuing. "-if what you say is true about the Heartless and how they're one of the major problems behind everything that's been going wrong…" He placed a hand over his heart and clutched it tightly. "Then please grant me the power to fight and protect others. I don't want anyone to suffer because of the Heartless and people using the darkness for their own gain. I want to stop them no matter what!" He stared at the female Keyblade bearer with determination in his eyes.

Aqua was left speechless. She didn't know what to say at this point. She could see the burning determination and spirit from the young prodigy of Pallet Town.

"So, please Aqua," the Kanto native started to plead with the blue-haired beauty who was quietly staring at him. "Please help me." the raven-haired male pleaded once more.

Closing her lovely blue eyes, the female Keyblade Master took a moment to ponder over her thoughts. After hearing what Ash had to say, she could finally understand why he was the 'Chosen One' of his world. He was caring and selfless. Not once did he ever think about himself, especially if the safety of others was at stake. Aqua could tell right away that Ash had a big heart filled with hope and potential which clearly reminded her of someone she once knew. And from there, she made her mind up as to what she was going to do.

'_Usually, I don't give in that easily, but-' _The blue-haired Keyblade wielder opened her eyes and stared at the raven-haired trainer before her who was waiting anxiously for her decision. _'-seeing that Ash is being really serious about this. I'll make an exception.' s_he chuckled and smiled.

Ash blinked a few times at the chuckling female. What was she chuckling about?

"All right Ash," Aqua started which got the Pokémon Trainer's full attention. "I'll do it. I'll perform the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony for you." she exclaimed with a smile, seemingly pleasing the 'soon-to-be' Keyblade bearer.

"Really?" Ash asked incredulously, hoping he wasn't hearing things. Aqua nodded.

"Of course," she confirmed still smiling. _'But you have to figure out the rest on your own when I'm done Ash.' _she uttered in her mind knowing that there were a few things that the young male must go through on his own without her help. _'That's how it works.' _

"Thank you, Aqua!" the Kanto native thanked the female Keyblade Master who immediately snapped out of her thoughts. "You're the best!" he added with his trademark smile.

Feeling a little embarrassed, the blue-haired woman simply waved him off as if it was no big deal when in reality it truly was. "It's no trouble at all, Ash." she told him in a modest tone.

Ash shook his head and said proudly. "No, I really meant it, Aqua. You really are the best. Thank you so much for helping me!" he offered her another smile.

Aqua didn't know why, but her cheeks were turning bright pink all of a sudden. Shaking off the fuzzy feeling within her, she let out a fake cough against her closed fist before regaining her composure and faced the 'soon-to-be' Keyblade wielder with a serious expression on her face. "All right Ash, enough talk. It's time to get down to business." she said in a serious tone of voice.

The raven-haired male nodded in agreement. Aqua summoned her Keyblade in a flash of light.

"Now, relax and close your eyes." the female Keyblade bearer instructed. Ash blinked which she quickly took notice of. "Trust me, just relax and close your eyes, and place your hand on my Keyblade. I'll take care of the rest." she reassured him with a smile.

Trusting her words and everything else that went with it, Ash took a deep breath before relieving himself from all his stress with a soft sigh. He slowly straightened himself up into a more comfortable composure, laying his right hand on her Keyblade before closing his eyes, allowing his mind and body to relax.

Seeing that the young prodigy of Pallet Town was ready, Aqua proceeded forward with the ceremony. But before she could even get started, a faint blue light around Ash abruptly caught her attention. She didn't know what it was, but she had a strong feeling that it was connected to Ash in some way. The flow of its presence was strong, but unbalanced. And soon it slowly faded away. The Keyblade bearer didn't know what she had just witnessed, but she was going to deal with it another time. Right now, she had other things to do.

With the strange glowing light no longer a distraction to her, the young beauty went down to business. She took a deep breath before easing her mind and body with a soft sigh of relief. She then closed her eyes and reached for the light within her heart, seeking to connect it to Ash's, using the Keyblade itself to link their hearts together. In no time, both her and Ash's bodies were emitting a bright light and it only lasted for a few moments before it died down.

Soon Aqua pulled her Keyblade out of Ash's grasp and lowered it to her side before opening her eyes where she could still see the Pokémon Trainer still relaxing with his eyes closed. She smiled. The Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony had been a success. It was finished. Well, half of it was. All that was left was for Ash to do his part. And seeing that the whole area was becoming hazy again only meant that Aqua's time with Ash was over. Therefore, the 'soon-to-be' Keyblade wielder would have to figure out on his own how to summon his new power once he woke up in the real world.

"All right Ash, it looks like my time with you is over for now." the female Keyblade wielder informed the Pokémon Trainer who didn't budge a muscle from his relaxed position. "You will have to awaken your Keyblade on your own once you wake up." she advised knowing that he was listening. "But I know you can do it." she smiled at the potential Keyblade bearer who still had his eyes closed. "I have faith in you."

A genuine smile tugged against the corner of Ash's lips.

"So, good luck." Aqua gave her final thoughts before disappearing.

Sensing that the Keyblade Master was no longer with him, the Kanto native slowly opened his eyes where he was abruptly blinded by a flash of light which eventually engulfed his entire being.

{…}

Not knowing where he was, Ash immediately shot straight up as quickly as possible to a sitting position, but soon winced in pain and clutched his chest with a hand when he finally realized that he was back in the waking world. He started to feel like it was better off staying asleep than waking up. That way he didn't have to deal with the excruciating pain that he was going through right now. Now that he was back in the world of the living Ash suddenly noticed that he was no longer in his clothes. No. Instead, he was in a pair of light blue pajamas with lightning bolts on them, with his both arms, abdomen, and left shoulder all wrapped up underneath. His left cheek was also covered by a small bandage.

Soon the clueless teenager looked around his new surroundings and noticed that he was inside a small guestroom with a window that was halfway open, allowing cool fresh air to breeze into the room. It was strange. How in the world did he get here? The last thing he remembered before passing out was being picked up by one of those voices he…

"Zzz…"

Alerted by a soft snore beside his bedside, the Pokémon Trainer cranked his head over to his right where he saw a young black-haired girl with a black headband, several years older than him resting her head on top of her arms on the side of the bed. Ash didn't know who she was or why she was in the room with him, but he can tell that she had been watching over him for some time now. That or she had simply fallen asleep from boredom. He smiled gently at the girl and her sleeping form before staring at her cute face for a few seconds. He didn't know why, but she seemed a bit familiar to him which was kinda weird. Who was she?

After a little while of sitting in his bed and do nothing but staring at the mysterious girl's face nonstop, the Kanto native decided to shake off the weird feeling within him before moving his attention away from the sleeping female over to the window.

As Ash was staring off into space, one mere thought came to him in the back of his mind.

'_Aqua…' _

* * *

**A/N: Well, guys, what do you think about chapter two so far? Was it surprisingly good now that Ash had a few encounters with Aqua and some of the FF cast members? And about the whole Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony idea, it came from my beta-reader, **_Vandenbz _**who got that idea from another author. He suggested that I should do something different since the whole "Dive in the Heart" trial has been played out so many that it gets old and stale which I completely agreed. Hope you guys agreed with it as well. Anyway, I'm off to write the next chapter. Please R & R! Thank you! **

**P.S. - Give the proofreading and editing credit to my beta-reader, **_Vandenbz_**.**

**Aoi Hyoudou **(formerly known as Johan07)


	3. Radiant Garden I: Arrival

**Aoi Hyoudou: **Thanks again for reviewing and posting comments for the last chapter. I really appreciate it like always. And before I get started by responding to some of the reviews from the previous chapter, I want you guys to know that this chapter will be very interesting to read. With that being said, it's time to post some responses.

**Misaki Ayuzawa 012: **It's too early to determine the pairing. So, you will just have to keep on reading and find out. XD

**AshKetchumDarkSide: **Yeah, sorry if it isn't a Ash x Kairi story, but Kairi will still play a major role in Ash's life. You will find out soon enough as to what it is.

**ZXCVBNMEM: **Ash won't meet Sora, Riku, Kairi, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, or Yen Sid until later on. But he will meet everyone else. XD

**Reishin Amara: **Similar to Sora, Ash will have Summon Gems, not charms that will allow him to summon Pokémon (based on my choices, of course XD) in the long run.

**Hopeful Light: **Hmm, not sure yet. Probably not.

**Now, on with the chapter!**

* * *

**Radiant Garden **

Part 1

{…}

"Yuffie, how could you let this happen?" a brown-haired man with a scar between his eyebrow and the bridge of his nose asked, frowning at the younger girl who was now sitting on the vacant bed that once had a certain raven-haired teenager occupying it. The older male had his arms crossed and was waiting for the little nuisance to answer his question as to why she was sleeping on the job.

Yuffie, the black-haired female who was being scolded by her three friends, mainly by the brown-haired older male, puffed her cheeks and glared angrily at her dear friend, Squall Leonhart aka Leon. What did he mean by 'how did _she _let this happen?' She didn't let anything happen. It was just a coincidence that her eyes were a little sleepy and closed during the time of the incident where their guest slipped through her grasp and left the room without her knowledge. That was it. How dare he falsely accuse her of doing something that she wasn't fully responsible for! The nerve of this guy!

Before the steaming girl could even plead her case or give her snippy friend a piece of her mind, she was rudely interrupted by another man who seems to be the oldest among the four with short blonde hair and a pair of goggles over his head. And he seems to be gnawing on a toothpick while he was talking. "Oh, I'll tell you how our little ninja brat screwed this up, Leon. It's because she was slacking off as usual." the older male claimed knowing too well about the female ninja's usual habit of not taking things too seriously and ended up goofing off.

"Hey!" Yuffie looked really offended by the old geezer's hurtful words about her as she suddenly shot straight up to her feet and glared angrily at the blonde man with a finger pointing at him. "The Great Ninja Yuffie. Does. Not. Slack off, you old fart!" she emphasized each of her words in anger and continued with a spat "You try to watch over a cute guy for two days. It gets really boring!"

"Well, whose damn fault is that, brat?" the blonde man said sarcastically while chewing on the toothpick. "You're the one who offered to look over the kid in the first place." he pointed out.

"So?" the young female completely ignored the obvious due to her stubbornness, mainly because she wasn't the type of person who liked to admit when she was at fault.

"So, it's _your _goddamn fault that you screwed up by falling asleep during your watch and let _that _kid leave the room without anyone's permission." the man known as Cid clarified, annoyed.

"Shut up, you old fart!"

Cid's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. "Who the hell are _you _calling an old fart, you loudmouthed brat!?" he sneered at the ninja girl with a hard glare who in return glared right back at him with her own.

The two engaged in a stare down while Leon in the background could only pinch the bridge of his nose with a hand in annoyance at the pair for acting so ridiculous and stupid at times. Couldn't they see that this wasn't the time or place to argue with each other? Didn't they know that they had other matters to deal with, like for one: finding their missing guest?

The argument between Yuffie and Cid grew far more intense by the second with the two taking turns calling each other nicknames and swearing at one another with curse words. At this point, Leon didn't know what he was going to do with these two. He was massaging his temples with the same hand that he previously used to pinch the bridge of his nose. While the Gunblade wielder's patience was growing thin, _someone_ decided to step in and take some actions to resolute the issue. And that someone happens to be the fourth member of the group who turned out to be a female close to Leon's age with long brown braided hair and wearing a red and white blouse over a pink dress. Her name was Aerith.

"Yuffie, Cid. Please stop fighting at once." she pleaded with her two friends who immediately took notice of her calming presence and stared at her. "Can't you see that you're really upsetting Leon?" she motioned her hand over to the moody swordsman who was feeling really irritated.

Yuffie and Cid looked over to the scarred man and studied him for a few moments until the ninja girl scoffed at the older female's words and said. "He's always like that, Aerith."

Leon sent a deadly glare towards the ninja girl's way.

"But, Aerith does make a hell a lot of sense." Cid interrupted and stated the fact. The young woman smiled at him. "We shouldn't be wasting any more goddamn time arguing. We should go out and look for that kid."

"Yeah, I guess so." Yuffie finally agreed knowing that he was right. "But where should we look? He could be anywhere in Radiant Garden." she asked her friends.

A pregnant silence fell upon the group. No one said a word for a while until someone finally spoke up.

"In his current condition, he couldn't have gotten far." the Gunblade wielder broke the awkward silence amongst the party. Aerith nodded in agreement.

"That's right. As much as his injuries weren't too serious, he's still in no condition to move around." the female healer informed her friends.

"So, what's the plan, Leon?" Cid turned to the scarred swordsman who always acts like the leader of the pack. Yuffie and Aerith also turned their attention to Leon.

The Gunblade user took a moment to ponder over his thoughts. It didn't take him that long to come up with a simple plan. "All right, here's the plan." Everyone listened in closely. "While Yuffie and I go search around in town," Leon briefly paused for a second as he stared at both Aerith and Cid in the eye and continued. "You two will stay here at Merlin's place in case _he _decides to come back, understood?"

"Yes." Aerith nodded with a smile.

"Sure, why not." Cid said looking so relieved that he didn't have to go with them to search around the entire city for some kid in blue pajamas. "Saves me a whole lot of trouble asking people about some kid."

"Yeah, since we all know that you will just slow us down with your old age if you went with us." Yuffie teased with a smirk which the blonde man didn't appreciate.

"Shut up, you dumb ninja brat!" he spat venomously with a hard glare which the ninja girl returned.

The two were at it again which made Leon palm his face and run his hand down his face in frustration while Aerith simply giggled at the pair's same old, same old antics. And once Leon was able to pull Yuffie away from Cid and drag her with him against her will, the two exited out the house and headed off to start their search for their missing guest.

{…}

Meanwhile, far away from Merlin's place, the weary trainer of Pallet Town was climbing up a huge staircase, one step at a time due to the fact that his body was still aching and recovering from his lingering injuries. He didn't know where he was going or where the steps were leading him to, but it felt like he had been climbing them for a while now. He guessed that the person who made the staircase didn't know of the word, "escalator" before. Other than that, Ash did feel a little bad that he left the place where he was woke up at without a single word. He knew that it wasn't the right thing to do, but it had to be done. He needed to know where he was. And in order to do that, he had to leave so he can look around his new surroundings.

After a long period of walking up the stairs, Ash finally made it to the top. "Fin-a-lly!" he huffed heavily in a comedic way.

With the treacherous staircase out of the way, the Kanto native could finally take a moment to catch his breath while wiping a few sweat droplets from his forehead with his forearm. Afterwards, the young teenager walked over to the ledge and took in the wonderful scenery for a brief moment. From where he was, he could see that most of the areas were under construction, either being repaired or expanded.

While Ash was enjoying the view, a cool breeze passed right by him, causing his front bangs to brush gently against his face with the wind. And at that exact point, another faint memory in the back of his mind abruptly came to him and surfaced. He didn't know why, but he felt like he'd been here before, if not quite familiar with this place. It was a little strange though. In his entire life, the Pokémon Trainer couldn't recall coming to this city. And yet…

Closing his eyes and shaking his head, Ash quickly regained his composure. There was no time for him to get distracted by some memory he didn't have that much knowledge about. He needed to stay focused and figure out where he was.

Just then, the Pokémon Trainer cranked his head to his right where he immediately took notice of a new path that was leading to a different area. Curious as he was, Ash walked over to the entrance and stopped right in front of it. After a few moments of hesitation, the young male finally went through the entrance and entered the new area, one identified as the Bailey according to a nearby sign.

{…}

Upon entering the Bailey, Ash quickly noticed that the whole area appeared to be the outskirts of the town, but with a few differences along the line. There were concrete brick walls around him with some having big rectangular gaps that he could use to see other parts of a different open area. As he moved forward, Ash could've sworn he heard several faint whispers right behind him. He couldn't make out who they were, but they sounded like squeaky female voices: one happy, one hyper, and one moody.

Quickly, the faraway home trainer stopped in his tracks and turned around where he saw nothing out of ordinary in the area. To make sure he wasn't hearing things or at the very least losing his mind, he double-checked his surroundings a few times before moving on like normal, unaware that three suspicious little figures were spying on him behind a brick pillar. As the young male cut around a corner, he suddenly came across his worst enemy: stairs. But unlike last time, this set of stairs was way, way shorter than the other ones which was something Ash had no problem with.

Once the Pokémon Trainer descended the flight of stairs, he came across another issue. And no… it wasn't stairs this time. It was a different problem. He came across a fork. He didn't know which path he should take: the left one or the right.

While the young trainer was pondering over his choice carefully, a strange fuzzy feeling within his heart abruptly came to him. For some strange odd reason, his heart was telling him to choose the right instead the left. He didn't know why or the full reason behind it, but it felt like he _had _to choose the right trail. Something was calling out to him. After a little while of debating whether or not he should follow his heart and go with the right path, Ash finally made up his mind. He'd go with his heart, a decision that had yet to fail him. The path on the right it was.

With his mind set, the Kanto native walked down his chosen path and entered the new area labeled as the Restoration Site.

{…}

Upon entering and walking through the restricted site, Ash found the trail that he was following a bit narrow. Sure, the surroundings were more organized and better looking than the last areas he went through, but that still didn't account for the lack of free space. There was hardly room to do anything but to move forward and back. But for some strange odd reason, it didn't seem like he was bothered by it that much. In fact, as weird as it sounded, he was quite used to the new surroundings which was something he didn't quite fully understand.

'_I don't get this…' _the Pokémon Trainer walked along the path while holding his aching left shoulder with his other hand and scanning around the environment cautiously. _'Why does this area seem so familiar to me like the other ones?' _he mentally asked himself and continued. _'Especially considering that this is my first time going through here.' _He continued to advance forward and muttered under his breath with a deep sigh. "Again, nothing really makes sense to me."

While things were becoming more and more complicated for the exhausted trainer, the young male eventually reach the end point of the trail where it led to another location called the Postern. Ash mentally thanked whoever had been thoughtful enough to leave signs around this place, otherwise he'd have no idea where he was. And without any hesitation like last time, he entered the new area.

{…}

Once the young prodigy of Pallet Town entered the Postern, he started to get a weird feeling about the whole area all of a sudden. He immediately stopped dead in his tracks when he saw two small ghostly children running across the ground a few meters ahead of him. One appeared to be a four year old little girl with short red hair and blue eyes in a white halterneck. The other was a five year old boy with messy black hair and chocolate brown eyes in a white T-shirt and blue shorts. And to Ash's big surprise, the little boy also had those little 'Z' markings underneath his eyes and on his cheeks just like him.

The Pokémon Trainer couldn't believe his eyes. Was he hallucinating? Why was he staring at a chibi version of himself? And who was the redheaded girl that his mini self was laughing and playing with? What did all of this mean?

So many questions with so little answers were going through Ash's mind right now as he was standing still and continued to look on at the little girl and his ghostly 'mini-self' playing around with their childish laughter echoing in the air. Suddenly, in a complete trance, the young trainer removed his hand away from his left shoulder and slowly reached out towards the two laughing children who then faded away from sight as soon as his hand was fully stretched out.

The dazed trainer blinked a few times before dropping his hand to his side. He didn't know what that was all about. Or why he was acting so strange. But he was so relieved that the two ghostly images were finally gone. They were starting to make him feel really uncomfortable, especially the ghostly image of his five year old self who was running around in front of him. But for some strange odd reason, his heart ached when the little redhead disappeared.

Ash stood still for the longest time without moving a muscle until he shook off the weird feeling within him and looked over to his left and stared up where he immediately took notice of a massive structure that he was quite familiar with. Throughout his past journeys, there were a few times where the Pokémon Trainer came across places with large important buildings and royal castles. So, this was nothing new to him. Although… Ash did feel like he had seen this castle-like building before but didn't remember when or where.

While the Kanto native continued to stare and stare at the slightly familiar structure before him, the temperature in the atmosphere around him suddenly dropped. The young male could feel a cold chill running down his spine. He had a very bad feeling that something was going to happen.

The temperature fell, yet again.

Ash immediately stood his ground with his eyes closed. He could sense something was right behind him and it was not alone. Quickly, he turned around where he came face to face with two problems: a pack of Shadows and another group of new Heartless. They were much taller than the Shadows with muscled arms and legs, a built physique, and longer antennas that were zigzags. Ash figured that these were those 'Neoshadows' that Aqua had mentioned encountering in the Realm of Darkness.

This was bad. They'd found him. The Pokémon Trainer hadn't anticipated running into the Heartless again this soon.

The young trainer took a step back only for him to look over his shoulder where he saw more Shadows and Neoshadows creeping up from behind. He broke down into a cold sweat. The Heartless had him surrounded on all sides. There was nowhere for him to run now.

'_What should I do?' _Ash panicked a little with little sweat droplets sliding down his forehead. The Heartless was closing in on him, no doubt planning to steal his heart. Their yellow eyes were gleaming dangerously at him. _'There's no escape route or anything I could use to fight them off.' _The young male scanned around his surroundings in desperate need for anything that could help him get out of this tight situation.

Soon, the raven-haired male would think back about his previous interaction with Aqua and the whole Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony. He wondered if the female Keyblade Master was able to finish the ceremony in time when he woke up. If so, did that mean he could use the Keyblade now? That would be great news if only he knew how to summon it. Ash realized that not asking Aqua how to summon a Keyblade on his own when he had the chance could be his final mistake. _'Great, if only I had the Keyblade, then maybe things wouldn't have turned out as bad as they are now. Stupid, stupid, stupid!' _The Pokémon Trainer mentally kicked himself for not asking his female companion about the Keyblade's limitations and its weaknesses.

Without warning, all the Heartless lunged forward from all sides at their defenseless target with their razor sharp claws preparing to tear him limb from limb. Seeing that there was no way out of this, Ash closed his eyes and chose to trust the faith that he had placed in his friends, hoping that once again it would help him when he needed it. Eventually, something did happen.

***BAM***

Suddenly, all the Shadows and Neoshadows flew backwards and disappeared in black particles after a powerful force of light knocked them away from the Pokémon Trainer. Ash didn't know what was going on so he quickly opened his eyes where he came across _something _that he was so happy and relieved to see. It was a Keyblade and he was holding it within his grasp. It was much, much different than Aqua's. It was completely white and blue with two white angel wings for a guard. Its shaft was hollow with a heart on the tip, the teeth of the weapon forming the kanji for 'hikari' (light). A keychain in a form of a five-pointed star hung from the handle, the center being yellow with the petals colored orange. Somewhere in the back of Ash's mind he could hear the word 'Oathkeeper', Ash assumed this to be the name of his Keyblade.

"Whoa…" The new Keyblade wielder was in complete awe of his new weapon as he studied it very carefully. He didn't expect to get this cool-looking Keyblade right off the bat already.

Soon Ash turned his attention away from the Oathkeeper, belatedly remembering that now wasn't exactly the best time to be spacing out. All the Shadows and Neoshadows were all… gone without a single trace. The young male didn't quite understand; what happened to the Heartless? A second ago, they were about to attack him and sink their claws into his body and now… they had vanished.

While things weren't adding up, the Pokémon Trainer was so relieved that his life was no longer in jeopardy at the hands of the Heartless. However, he was still curious as to what caused the Heartless to vanish. Was it possible that it was the Keyblade's doing?

The raven-haired teenager returned his gaze back to his Keyblade and stared at it for a few moments until a sudden thought came to him. Now that he had the chance to think about it, Aqua had said something about the Keyblade being the 'only' weapon in the universe that could cleanse the Heartless and release the corrupted hearts within them. So, it could be possible or hinted that during the time when the Oathkeeper appeared the Heartless could've escaped before he could even use it or something like that. Either way, the new Keyblade user couldn't be happier that he was one step closer to fulfilling his promise to Aqua about helping and protecting others from the forces of darkness.

So, all he needed to do now was to learn how to fight and use the Keyblade. Ash figured it wouldn't be too much of a problem for him if the learning curve from his Pokemon journey was any indication. But there were times even during his past journeys across Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova where he needed someone to show him the basics of a battle strategy or a Pokémon attack. And _this_ was one of those times.

Right off the bat, the Pokémon Trainer came up with one person who might be willing to take him under her wing and teach him the ways of the Keyblade. Aqua, she was the perfect candidate. That is until he finally realized that there was a problem to that. The only time he could see the female Keyblade Master was when he was unconscious or sleeping. Other than that, there's no other way for him to contact Aqua. Other factors might stop him from seeing her, Ash had learned from experience that communication with others could be interrupted or blocked.

The young Keyblade bearer couldn't think of anyone else who can take over Aqua's role. His lack of potential trainers was limited given his new location. He was in a city that he was barely familiar with, surrounded by people he didn't know, and hunted by creatures he had very little experience in fighting. Not exactly an ideal situation. He didn't know where to start looking for a temporary mentor or at least someone who knew a lot about the Keyblades.

While Ash was pondering over his thoughts as to what approach he should take to deal with his little issue, a new unfamiliar female voice abruptly reached out to his ears and seized his attention. "Hey, _you_!"

The raven-haired male jumped. Not because the female voice unexpectedly caught him off guard. No. It was because he didn't know if the direct shout from the unknown individual was for him or not. For all he knew, it was probably meant for someone else who was in the area that he wasn't fully aware of. Either way, the young Keyblade bearer still moved his attention over in the direction where he heard the female voice.

Standing a great distance away from the Pokémon Trainer with her hands on her hips was a black-haired woman with red eyes - or were they brown? Her outfit consisted of a black tank top, black skirt, a pair of black and white sneakers, and black gloves. She was quite attractive and unlike most women her lovely figure was mildly built, clearly indicating some form of combat training.

At times like these, Ash felt so relieved and glad that a _certain_ squinty-eyed Pokémon Breeder/Doctor-in-training wasn't with him right now. Knowing the former Gym Leader, he would probably try - no- he would _definitely _try to hit on the girl if he saw her and most likely drool at the sight of her beauty. Even the young male had to admit that the older female was quite beautiful, maybe prettier than Aqua by a little bit since she _was _mentally and physically older than the latter. But there was something strange about the woman's aura, something that was telling the young teenager that he _should_ feel glad that his squinty-eyed friend wasn't with him right now. It didn't seem like she was the type of girl who took excessive flirting well but looks could be deceiving. For all he knew, she might think a guy like Brock hitting on her to be cute and amusing; or something like that down the line.

Anyway, the young Keyblade wielder could feel the black-haired female's intense gaze on him. He had a strong feeling that she was staring directly in his direction and still waiting on him to give her some sort of response. Finally realizing this, the Pokémon Trainer refocused his attention right back to the main issue.

But before Ash could turn to the older woman, he first surveyed his surroundings to make sure that he wasn't missing anything. Once things were clear, he returned his gaze right back onto the female in black and said. "Who, me?" he pointed at himself, dumbly.

Fighting the urge to allow a soft giggle to escape from her mouth, the black-haired beauty crossed her arms over her chest and gave the young lad a smug smirk and said, "Of course, _you_. Who else do I see running around in blue PJ's?" she teased a little.

"Oh, right…" The Kanto native knew it. Right from the very start, he knew he had a feeling that she was trying to get his attention. And now that everything was confirmed, he felt a little stupid and embarrassed. But at the same time wondering why she was looking for him in the first place.

Seeing that the young male was a little red in the face made the older woman giggle a little at his discomfort. She stopped upon seeing something _familiar_ within the boy's grasp. Her reddish eyes slightly bugged out when she recognized what it was. "I can't believe it… A Keyblade!?"

Ash completely stared at the female in black with widen eyes. "Wait, you know about the Keyblade?" he asked the mysterious woman in disbelief.

The black-haired beauty nodded.

"Yes," she confirmed without hesitation as she approached.

"How?" The young bearer of the Keyblade never let his gaze off the woman for one second as she made her way over to him.

Briefly pausing for a moment, the female stranger stopped in her tracks and gathered her thoughts before explaining. "A while back I met a spiky-haired boy with a talking duck and talking dog who can use the Keyblade as well."

Ash blinked a few times. While he could understand the part about the spiky-haired boy who was capable of using the Keyblade, the whole thing about the talking duck and the talking dog somewhat lost him. He didn't expect to hear more about talking creatures who could speak human language like Team Rocket's Meowth. Sure, he did have experience during his past travels dealing with Pokémon who could communicate telepathically with humans or dealing with Meowth in general. But something was telling him that the talking duck and the talking dog were a bit different from the rest. In some way, it was quite new to the young male.

"Oh, I see…" all the raven-haired teenager said before taking in all the information that he had gathered thus far from the older girl.

The black-haired beauty nodded with a warm smile on her face. And soon a small thought abruptly came to her. "Hmm… you know," she started causing the Kanto native to snap out from his thoughts and turn his attention right back onto her with some interest. "You and Sora would become great friends if you guys met."

Ash blinked again. He didn't have the slightest clue as to who was this Sora person that the older female kept mentioning. But he had a strong feeling that it was the name of that one boy -that one kid that she brought up moments ago who could use the Keyblade like him.

Before the Pokémon Trainer could even open his mouth and respond to the woman's earlier comment, a perky female voice abruptly cut him off from saying anything and announced. "A-ha! I found him, Squall! He's over there with Tifa."

"I can see that Yuffie." came a scornful response from amale voice. "And my name is Leon!" the angry voice added with a hiss.

Immediately, the young bearer of the Keyblade and the black-haired female now known as Tifa both turned their heads over in the direction where they heard the two voices and spotted the ninja girl and the Gunblade wielder near the Postern entrance/exit. Ash was quite surprised to see the same girl who slept near his bedside from before in this place. As for the scarred man who was standing next to her with a scowl on his face, the young teenager didn't have the slightest clue as to who he was. But for some strange odd reason, he felt like he had seen this guy before from somewhere but couldn't remember when or how.

"Hey, Yuffie. Hey, Leon." the female martial artist greeted her two friends respectively with a smile.

The pair acknowledged her warm greeting and slowly walked over until they stopped dead in their tracks when they spotted a familiar weapon that they know so much about within Ash's grip. They couldn't believe their eyes. They didn't expect to come across a new Keyblade wielder all of a sudden, especially from the same kid who they just saved from a few days ago. Sure, it wasn't _that_ unusual for the two to encounter the Keyblade's Chosen Ones since they had known a few in the past. But this was something unexpected that neither of them were prepared for.

"Is that a Keyblade?" the ninja girl asked in awe.

Leon rolled his eyes.

"Of course it is, Yuffie. What else could it be?" he exclaimed dryly, causing the younger female to shoot a hard glare his way which he completely ignored.

While the pair quarreled amongst each other, Ash could only look on and stare at the duo with a surprised look on his face. He didn't know these two know about the Keyblade as well. He guessed that the Keyblade was pretty well known around wherever he was if every stranger that he ran into already knew about its existence.

"Wait, you guys know about _this _too?" the Pokémon prodigy abruptly interrupted the pair by placing his Keyblade out right in front of him which caused the duo to end their argument and stare at him with the ninja girl smiling at him with a nod.

"Yup, that's right!" Yuffie chimed proudly with a grin.

Leon rolled his eyes again at his ignorant friend and explained. "It's because we have a friend who's a chosen Keyblade wielder like you."

"Oh! And don't forget about King Mickey, Squall." Yuffie rudely interrupted. "He's a Keyblade wielder, too." she added.

"I know, Yuffie." the older male said with a flat tone. "You don't need to remind me." He sent her a cold glare her way yet again.

"Too bad. I just did." His younger companion ignored his glare and poked her tongue at him which made him pinch the bridge of his nose in frustration with a hand.

Ash blinked at the two. What was up with them? They always seemed like they constantly argued with one another when they had the chance to do so. Did they have some kind of complex relationship? And the strange part about it was that it kinda reminded him when he had that kind of issue with one of his former female traveling companions in the past. Soon he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder. He turned his head to the side where he saw Tifa giving him a reassuring smile.

"Don't think about it too much." she started. "They're always like that." she simply put it.

The raven-haired male didn't say anything. Mainly because he didn't know what to say to that so he simply nodded his head and accepted the martial artist's simple explanation about her two friends.

Soon Ash sensed someone approaching himself and Tifa. He turned his head and faced forward where he saw both Leon and Yuffie walking over with Leon stopping right in front of him and placing a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's head back. We've got a lot of things to talk about."

Knowing that the older male was right, the young Keyblade bearer nodded his head. With no objection from the Pokémon Trainer, everyone headed off and left the Postern to the house Ash woke up in, Yuffie cheerfully identifying it as the house of someone named Merlin.

{…}

Upon returning to Merlin's house, Ash introduced himself to Aerith and Cid who were both astonished and shocked to see him holding a Keyblade like their dear friend Sora. But nonetheless, they introduced themselves to him as well which the young male couldn't help but get a weird feeling that he had seen them before like Leon and Yuffie. After a short introduction from everyone else and how each one except for Tifa was a member of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee, an organization trying to restore the city to its once glory days, Aerith changed Ash's old bandages with new ones. This was a procedure Ash was familiar with back in his world, one designed to keep wounds clean as they healed. Old bandages could be dangerous; all of the walking around from earlier hadn't helped. Once the raven-haired teenager got some food in his system since he hasn't eaten anything for the past two days, everyone headed to the guestroom where the group quickly settled in before starting up a conversation.

"So, you're a Keyblade wielder, huh?" Cid spoke up first while gnawing on his trademark toothpick. The raven-haired teenager answered the blonde man's question with a nod. "Ha. Didn't expect a squirt like you to be one." Ash who was resting within the bed sheets with the Oathkeeper resting on his lap looked offended at the man's words and shot him a hard glare. Who was he calling a squirt? "But who's complaining?" the older male continued causing the young teen to ease up a little bit. "That's one more on our side who can help us clear out the remaining Heartless in the city." Cid smirked.

The Pokémon prodigy smiled a little at the blonde man.

"And by the way," Cid pulled out a familiar object from his pants' pocket and held it out towards the young male's direction. "Mind if I borrow _this _from you for a little while?" It was the young trainer's Pokégear which was given to him by his dear mother as a birthday present only a short time ago, Ash felt like it'd be been years since that peaceful day. "I'll give it back when I'm done looking at it, all right kid?"

"Hmm…" Ash stared and studied the middle-aged man for the longest time. The Kanto native didn't know if he should let the older male hold onto his Pokégear. He'd promised Mom that he would take good care of it. But judging by Cid and how sincere he sounded by promising to give it back once he was done twiddling around with it, the young bearer of the Keyblade felt like he could trust the man, even if the blonde man didn't look like the type of person who could be trusted by a normal person. Ash decided to trust Cid with his Pokégear for now. For all he knew, it could work to his advantage. Cid might add a function or two into the device. Or better yet, build him a backup just in case something bad happened to the original. A win-win situation in the end.

"Sure, I don't mind." The Pokémon Trainer gave his new friend his consent.

Cid looked really pleased and grinned at the young lad before going on his way to fiddle around with the Pokégear and all of its mechanisms.

While the middle-aged man was being preoccupied by his own matters and ranting on in the background about how interesting each function of the Pokégear was, Yuffie continued the group's conversation from where it left off. "So, how many does that make now?" Everyone except for Cid all stared at her with the exception of Leon who didn't quite understand her question which she quickly took notice of. "You know, as in Keyblade Masters." she clarified her question.

While Ash didn't feel or believe that he was at the level of 'Keyblade Master' just yet since he knew that he still had a long way to go before he could even achieve that title, Aerith went down a list in her head of all the Keyblade wielders that she had met during her lifetime and started. "Well, there's Sora."

"And the King," Leon suddenly spoke up and added while leaning against the wall near the door with his arms crossed in a cool manner.

"That's two." Tifa who was currently sitting in a chair exclaimed but then remembered another person that her friends told her about not too long ago. "Oh, and Sora's friend, Riku was it?"

"Yup!" Yuffie beamed at the older female and continued. "He's one too, so that makes three."

"And now that we've met Ash. That's four." the Gunblade wielder cut in once again and then moved his gaze over to the young Keyblade wielder who immediately took notice of his stare and said. "Which means, just like Sora and the others, you're _not_ from here, are you Ash?" As much as the scarred man said that, he still had a strong feeling that at one point in time he had met Ash somewhere before this but couldn't remember when.

The raven-haired teenager was quite surprised with Leon. As much as the veteran swordsman looked quite intimidating, he was very sharp at figuring things out before anyone else which drew everyone's attention onto the young Keyblade bearer who slowly nodded to him. "Yeah."

Ash began telling his new friends that he _came _from a world where magical creatures known as Pokémon existed, living amongst the humans in peace and harmony which was something that caught the party's interest. He went on and explained other details about his world that he could remember; everything from Pokémon Trainers to Pokémon League Champions and anything else that he might've left out which included his lifetime dream of becoming the world's greatest Pokémon Master of all time. At least before it was quickly stripped away from him by the hands of the Heartless anyway. Upon hearing this, most of the members gave the young lad sympathetic looks. They knew how it felt to lose your home to the Heartless. They too had lost their world, so he wasn't alone. They had regained theirs, Ash could certainly do the same for his.

The Pokémon prodigy finally finished explaining his case with the exception of not mentioning Aqua to the group. He knew that if he brought her up in any way and mentioned the fact that he could only see her when he's asleep, it would only complicate things. An awkward silence hung in the air for the longest time until someone finally spoke up again. "So, what now?" Yuffie broke the awkward silence first and asked her friends who didn't answer her right away.

Everyone thought for a moment until an idea struck Aerith's mind. "How about we contact King Mickey and ask him about this situation?" Her suggestion immediately caught everyone's attention. "I'm sure he'll know what to do."

"Yeah," Yuffie somewhat understood her friend's plan. "Since he's a chosen Keyblade wielder like Ash. That's a good idea, Aerith. Let's do it!"

The older woman smiled at her younger friend.

While Ash and the others thought Aerith's proposal sounded like it was a good plan, Leon on the other hand thought it would just be a waste of their time to go through with it. Mainly because he already knew that a certain mouse king was preoccupied with other matters at the moment like preparing something _major _with his master and his two loyal friends for two special individuals who would be returning in four months. So, there was no point for them to disturb King Mickey, Donald, and Goofy if they were busy with other projects.

"No, we shouldn't." All eyes fell on Leon.

Yuffie frowned deeply at the Gunblade wielder. "Why not?" she demanded as she crossed her arms and looked at him with a hard stare.

Rolling his eyes, Leon began to explain his reason as to why. "It's because the King along with Donald and Goofy are busy right now. They're preparing something important for Sora and Riku, so we shouldn't bother them with our problems for the next four months."

"So, what do you recommend we should do until then, Leon?" Tifa abruptly asked the leader of the group who immediately turned his head in her direction and stared at her with the full intention of answering her question.

But before the scarred swordsman could even opened his mouth and let out a few words to the female martial artist, Aerith abruptly interrupted him by speaking over him and offered Ash an invitation to stay at Merlin's place. "You're more than welcome to stay here until King Mickey is free, Ash." she told him with a genuine smile on her face.

The raven-haired teenager was quite taken aback by the sudden offer. It was something he wasn't expecting. "Really?" he asked. The flower woman nodded which puts the young male's mind at ease. "Then, thank you. I really appreciate your hospitality." He gave the older female a warm grateful smile.

"But don't get too comfortable now," Ash turned his attention to Yuffie who was grinning at him. "You will have to pull your own weight around here." she advised which was something she usually didn't do on most days.

Cid snorted when he heard this. "Yeah, like you're in any position to say something like that, brat." he said sarcastically.

The ninja girl glared at the old geezer and spat. "Shut it, you old fart."

The pair was at it again.

Leon simply ignored them both. And before he could even respond to Tifa's earlier concern about the group's next move, something unexpected suddenly interrupted him. Out of the blue, a puffy cloud of smoke magically appeared inside the guestroom which completely took some of the members especially Ash by surprise. And once the smoke cleared, an old man, way older than anyone else in a blue wizard robe with a blue pointy hat, long white beard, and tiny little glasses was standing before the group.

Ash stared and studied the strange old man for the longest time. He didn't know who this old timer was, but everyone else did. Most greeted the aged wizard with warm welcomes with the exception of Ash who was looking on in silence and Cid who made a few wisecrack remarks about the old geezer, in return being knocked off his feet by the old wizard when he waved his magical wand and shot pixie dust in the blonde man's direction. The end result was Cid flying back a few feet to land on his butt with a pained grunt.

Once Merlin regained his composure and ignored all of Cid's swears and curses that were thrown at his way, he finally took notice that there was one more person in the room that he hadn't been fully aware of until now. His eyes quickly moved to the guest bed and fell on the newcomer who smiled nervously at him when their eyes met. The old wizard didn't know who this young man was, but once he moved his attention to the boy's lap all of his interest was suddenly on the adolescent teenager. Mainly because of the familiar weapon that was resting comfortably on his lap.

"My word, is that a Keyblade you got there, young man?" the flabbergasted sorcerer asked.

The Pokémon Trainer blinked a few times before nodding.

"I see," Merlin thought for a brief moment as he stroked his beard with a hand. This was quite interesting. Who would have thought he would run into another Keyblade bearer like Yen Sid, King Mickey, Sora, and Riku? Sure, it was a good thing, but at the same time somewhat sudden and strange. "But how is that possible?"

Leon took that as his cue to step in and inform the old man about _everything _that happened thus far before he showed up. Once the Gunblade wielder was done explaining the current situation and everything else to his elder, Merlin finally understood the group's tough predicament. "Ah, now I see." he said as he pieced together all of the information from Leon, stroking his beard yet again as he thought about this new development.

"So, what should we do, Merlin?" Aerith asked the elderly wizard for his opinion as to what the party should do in a time like this who immediately turned his head and faced her direction to see everyone's eyes on him.

"Well, my dear," he began. "The only thing we can do right now is to have Ash stay put in Radiant Garden until we figure things out and wait for King Mickey to return once he's available. I'm very confident that Mickey would like to meet Ash in person knowing that there is another Keyblade Master amongst us." he added which was something that most agreed with except for Ash who didn't know who King Mickey was but figured that it was someone really important if the group kept mentioning his name.

Soon the Kanto native noticed that Merlin quickly returned his focus right back to him, seeing that the old wizard wasn't quite finish talking to him just yet. "Now, Ash, seeing that you will be staying here for a while until we can get a hold of the king and inform him about you and everything else that might be related, there are a few questions I would like to ask you if you don't mind."

The raven-haired teenager thought for a moment, wondering what kind of questions the magical sorcerer wanted to ask him about. Most likely, the questions were probably going to be, if not about him and how did he obtained the Keyblade or something like that. It wouldn't be too surprising since he still hasn't explained to the others about it. So, in a way, it kinda made sense if… that was the case.

"Sure, I have no problem with that. Ask away." the young male finally said as he smiled at the old man.

Merlin returned the smile. The young lad sure knew his manners when it came to addressing his elders, unlike some _people _that the aged wizard was familiar with. "Very well, my boy," He took a brief moment to gather his thoughts before continuing. "How much experience do you have in battling and magic?" he asked knowing that it was kind of random, but he needed to know before he could even continue on.

Ash blinked at the wizard's sudden question with a dumbfounded expression written on his face. While the word 'magic' somewhat caught him off guard as he didn't expect someone else would bring that topic up. Nobody else besides that one magician girl that he met back in Johto during the time when he was traveling around with Brock and Misty, he took a brief pause to think back about his life. Did he ever have any past experience in physical combat? He didn't think he ever did. Most of the fights were Pokémon battles and evading Team Rocket's evil schemes. To sum it all up, no fighting experience whatsoever. Maybe average dodging abilities, but that was about it.

"Honestly, I don't have any." the raven-haired male answered with a nervous grin, seeing that everyone was now staring at him with mixed reactions. His reply was only for the battling part since he still wasn't sure if he should answer the other part, even though he had some experience with it. He decided that it'd be best to leave it out for now.

"I see," all Merlin said as he stroked his white beard once again and fell into deep thought. After a little while of pondering over his thoughts, an idea abruptly came to the old wizard. If Ash didn't have any training whatsoever in the arts of fighting and magic, then maybe he and some of his good friends could teach the young lad while he was here. That way, later on the young Keyblade bearer could be a major help to them when they were up against the Heartless or Maleficent, or someone worse than her in the long run.

Once Merlin did a quick side-glance towards the others who immediately got a strong feeling that he was up to something, he quickly turned his attention right back to Ash and offered him something that he couldn't refuse. "Mind if I offer you a suggestion, then?" The Pokémon Trainer was all ears and so was everyone else. They were all curious as to what he was going to say. And seeing that he had everyone's attention in the palm of his hand, the old wizard continued forward with his approach. "Since you have no experience, I'm very confident that Leon and the others including myself would be happy to give you some lessons if you like. So, what is your decision, my dear boy?" he asked which clearly took everyone especially Ash by surprise.

No one had expected this. No one more so than the newly Keyblade wielder himself. It certainly felt like it was the right course of action to take. And seeing that all eyes were on him, one could only wonder what was his response to the sudden offer would be.

The only person who can answer that was Ash himself.

* * *

**A/N: Sorry if this chapter took so long to get done. Blame **_**TTF2**_**! But at least this chapter is a lot longer than the last two, although it did seem like I dragged the chapter on a bit too much with all the boring talking. What do you guys think? Anyway, I'm going to work on ch 9 and 10 for **_**Operation Aura **_**before coming back to **_**Pokéhearts**_** since many of you have requested that I should do updates for **_**Operation Aura**_**. So, yeah. Hope the rest of you don't mind. Please R & R! Thank you! Until then, peace out!**

**P.S. - Give the proofreading and editing credit to my beta-reader, **_Vandenbz_**.**

**Aoi Hyoudou **(formerly known as Johan07)


	4. AN: Sorry!

**A/N: **Sorry if you guys thought this was an update. I'm having a **MAJOR** writer's block for Chapter 4 right now. Mainly because I can't figure out how to start Ash's first days of training with Leon, the other members of Radiant Garden Restoration Committee, and Aqua. I could always skip it and add the skits of his training days in flashbacks throughout the story and then move on with the chapter itself. But then I'll be leaving out so many unanswered questions as to how Ash got so better all of the sudden as a Keyblade wielder. So, I'm leaving the decision up to you guys. Should I or should I not continued writing Ash's first days of training? Or should I or should I not just skip most of the training and add them in later flashbacks and rewrite Chapter 4 altogether? I'm all ears. Please give your opinion as to what I should do. Thank you!

**Aoi Hyoudou **(formerly known as Johan07)


	5. Radiant Garden II: New Journey

**Aoi Hyoudou:** As you may or may not know this, my old computer couldn't connect to the Internet no matter what I do thanks to a computer virus, of some sort. Therefore, all my files are still inside the old (H)-drive. I don't have the cash to buy a memory drive to copy all the files. So, I have to redo all my updates from scrap again. Such a nuisance. And the worst part, my new computer, for some strange reason, don't want to run Microsoft Window Office 2010 60-day free trial. So, I have to use Notepad, as my last resort since I can't use Word or Word Processor, for that matter without the program, which totally sucks... And I don't want to spend 170.00 dollars just to buy the real one. Anyway, I'll try my best to post as much updates ASAP. For now, just enjoy this chapter that I work so hard to make up for lost time.

* * *

**Radiant Garden**

Part 2

{...}

Eight weeks. It'd been eight unforgivable weeks since Ash first woke up in Radiant Garden and accepted Merlin's offer. And eight grueling weeks since he started his training regime with Leon and co. It had been two painful months for the young ebony haired teen. The training sessions that Leon put him through each single day were unlike anything he had ever gone through within the six years of his career as a Pokémon Trainer. Each lesson was completely hellish, one after the next. And there was still more to come.

It was a living nightmare.

But somehow—Ash survived.

He endured it all. No matter how tough it looked or how intense it got when training with Leon or Tifa, not once did he ever throw in the towel and say, "I quit!" No. He continued to work hard until he pushed himself to his limits and beyond them, to prove to everyone that he was no pushover. That was his way and no one could change that - not Leon - not Tifa - and of course not even Aqua herself.

As for his progress after spending eight straight weeks training with the Restoration Committee and a Keyblade Master, it was actually going smoothly, with a few hits and misses along the way. His speed and evasion had gotten better since the beginning. Although... his sword skills still needed some work. It did improve in some areas, like attacking and parrying, but it still wasn't to the level of his two sword masters. However, the auburn eyed teen did learn a few new tricks from Tifa in the area of hand-to-hand combat, in case he needed them when he's facing off against tough opponents.

But still... even Ash knew that he still had a long way to go. He somehow got the feeling that he needed to proceed on his journey. With time running short on him and with Sora, Riku, Kairi's arrival approaching in less than two weeks, he needed to focus harder than ever on his training.

That is... if nothing distracted him along the way, of course.

"Haa...!"

_CLANG!_

In a shower of sparks, Ash's Oathkeeper and Leon's Gunblade clashed in a fierce deadlock, with neither of the two competitors backing down from one another. It was another day. Ash and Leon were engaging in a friendly but competitive sparring match with their friends, apart from Merlin who was currently missing and nowhere to be seen, watching them from the sides. The spar was taking place in the Borough district just outside of Merlin's place where the battle was starting to pick up.

Ash and Leon made eye contact with one another. Neither of them said a word. But by their body language they were telling each other to step up their game, which they gladly did.

The pair smirked at one another before breaking away from the deadlock and skidding backwards. Soon the novice Keyblade bearer made the first move and charged forward at his opponent while switching to the one-handed sword-style that he preferred. During his training he found it much easier to maneuver with than the more common two-handed style. Sure, the force of his attacks may be reduced, and Ash knew the other style was useful for situations such as the aforementioned deadlock, but that wasn't not going to stop him from finding ways to overcome that weakness. His Pokémon Journey had shown him that ingenuity and unorthodox thinking more often than not beat overwhelming power.

_CLANG!_

Easily, the experienced swordsman parried his student's clumsy attack and pushed the young teenager back. The scarred man tried to deliver his own slash but the ebony haired male quickly reacted in time and parried the blow, causing another set of sparks to fly. Soon the two warriors found themselves going back and forth, exchanging blow after blow and move after move while deflecting each other's attacks. Sparks continued to ignite after each collision of the two blades. There were a few notable moments in the struggle. One began with Ash doing a quick twirl in an attempt to attack his friend but it easily got fended off. And when he stopped one of the older male's attacks he leapt high into the air, did a mid-air front flip before diving straight down at the Gunblade wielder, where Leon of course blocked his move and pushed him back.

Leon had to admit that Ash was showing some pretty good moves. And it was more surprising that he was moving quicker than usual with each of his attacks becoming more swift and faster than before. But this was no time to be impressed. Their little spar was far from being over.

Ash might've had speed on his side, but Leon had more experience.

While the two combatants continued to go at it, Yuffie and the other members of the Restoration Committee couldn't help but smile at the former Pok mon Trainer while still focusing their attention on the match itself. It seemed like his training progress was coming along smoothly. It was no big surprise. He'd been working pretty hard since day one. They also knew that he would continue to do so as time went on. "That kid is something." Cid was the first one to speak amongst the group.

"You're telling me!" Yuffie said in awe as she couldn't stop watching the practice fight between her two friends. She saw Ash quickly ducking under one of Leon's attacks before swiftly fending off another. "Ash is actually holding his own against Leon this time around." She couldn't help but beam happily at that development.

"That may be true, but he still has a long way to go, Yuffie." Tifa had a different view about the situation. "Although—" The black haired woman had a small smile tugging against the corners of her lips. "—I have to give him some credit for lasting this long." she commented.

"That makes two of us." Aerith smiled brightly, agreeing with her friend.

Once an hour flew by, Leon decided to end his pupil's training for today. "All right, that's enough for now." the scarred swordsman ordered. "We'll start again first thing in the morning." he added.

Ash sighed in relief and relaxed.

"And Ash " The ebony haired teenager quickly looked forward and faced his instructor who was giving him a small smile. " you did a good job."

The Keyblade wielder blinked once, then twice, before returning the smile.

"Oh, my god! Do my ears hear it correctly? Did Squall actually give a compliment to somebody? That's shocking." Yuffie teased grinning as she and the rest of the Restoration Committee approached the pair.

Leon rolled his eyes.

Sometimes, Yuffie was just asking for it.

As soon as each member took the time to congratulate their young friend on a hard day's work in his training, a loud growling sound abruptly caught everyone's now undivided attention. All eyes fell on Ash, who was blushing uncontrollably and grinning nervously since it was his rumbling stomach that had made that disturbing noise.

"Uh-oh. It looks like someone's hungry." the black haired ninja teased her blushing friend.

Aerith giggled and suggested, "How about we all head inside? I'll cook something for all of us."

Everyone liked that plan including the former Pokémon Trainer. He was starving!

But before anyone could even step a foot inside Merlin's place, a puffy cloud of smoke suddenly cut them off and blocked their path. And once the smoke cleared, their dear old wizard friend Merlin appeared before them. "Merlin!" The old sorcerer earned a round of greetings from the party including an insult from Cid.

"Where the hell were you, you damn old coot?" the blonde Gummi ship mechanic asked in an annoyed voice.

Merlin completely disregarded that insult. He wasn't in the mood to deal with Cid right now. He had other important matters to attend to. And once he spotted Ash he quickly got down to business. "Ah yes. Just the young lad I want to see."

"What's up Merlin?" the black haired teenager said smiling at the old wizard.

"If I could have a moment of your time my dear boy, there's something I need to discuss with you." Merlin stated without any delay.

"Oh, what is it?" The young lad looked quite curious as to what it could be.

"It's..." But before the powerful sorcerer could even get a few words in, a familiar stomach growl immediately cut him off, causing the Keyblader to apologize for his accidental rudeness.

"Sorry—" he laughed nervously rubbing the back of his head embarrassed. "—but can we continue this after we get something to eat first?" he asked politely.

Merlin blinked. "Oh, why of course we can. I don't see any problem with that." he responded uncertainly.

Ash looked happy and smiled.

While the party was heading inside the house one by one, they were completely unaware that a dark figure in a black overcoat, one who was standing completely undetected by the locals on a business rooftop from afar, was looking on from its location. And once Ash and his group was out of sight, the figure's body was quickly enveloped by a dark portal and disappeared.

{...}

Meanwhile...in the world known as The World That Never Was, there stood a fortress that had once served as the headquarters of the now infamous Organization XIII, a group of humanoid Nobodies that sought to control the power of Kingdom Hearts. The witch Maleficent glanced through one of the windows in deep thought. There was no telling what was going through her mind as she was staring down below at her dark city of Heartless. But it was strongly hinted that she was waiting for her bumbling idiot right-hand man Pete to return from his recent assignment and and inform her about his findings. So far, there was no sign of his whereabouts.

That is...until now.

"Oh, Maleficent~! I'm back!" came Pete's annoying voice.

Her eyebrow slightly twitched but she remained calm in her composure as she didn't turn around and greet the big buffoon who was standing behind her with that stupid look on his face. "Well, don't just stand there like an insignificant fool. What did you find out?" It was more of a demand than a question.

"Your intuition was correct Maleficent. There is indeed another key brat out there and he's bound to be just as troublesome as those other two punks." the black cat quickly answered.

"Hmph!" The evil witch scoffed at the obvious news. Of course her intuition was right. When did it ever fail her? But now that her idiot minion had confirmed that her intuition was right about a new problem that was heading her way she couldn't help but clench her grip on her scepter. It was already bad enough that she was dealing with Sora and his little friends but now with a new Keyblade wielder on the horizon, her conquest for Kingdom Hearts was slowly slipping away from her fingertips. And that was not even the worst of it.

"And Xehanort?" Maleficent spat at the name of her old archrival.

"Still no sign of him." was Pete's response.

"Hmph! That old pathetic fool is up to something." The sorceress slightly looked over her shoulder to spare Pete a small glance before facing forward once again.

"What should we do?" asked her loyal follower.

"Let him be." Pete looked quite surprised. "His pathetic plan will fail and crumble. When it does Kingdom Hearts shall be mine." An evil smile tugged against the corners of her lips. "But for now, we must deal with the new key brat." She returned her focus back to a certain boy.

"Maybe we could try turning him into a Heartless." Pete suggested an idea.

That sounded like a good plan. But Maleficent had other ideas on her mind.

"No..." Soon the woman turned and faced her right-hand man with a wicked smile on her face. "I have a much better idea." she said coolly.

Her henchman didn't like where this was going.

What could be better than turning Ash into a Heartless?

{...}

Back at Merlin's place, things were starting to pick up where they left off. With the group finally full from their late-afternoon meal and Ash now in a new set of clothes which consisted of a long sleeved blue jacket with the zipper zipped halfway down over a black V-shirt, a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of blue and white sneakers, Merlin wasted no time explaining his reason as to why he suddenly wanted to talk to the young Keyblader. Apparently, the old wizard had been given a special task by Yen Sid and King Mickey to inform Ash that his assistance was needed.

The news was...the Heartless were on the move again and this time they were targeting new worlds, they were even going after a few others that Sora had previously visited and protected. And with the three main Keyblade wielders currently inactive, it was up to the former Pokémon Trainer to take on the role as a 'chosen Keyblade warrior', going out and protecting those worlds from the forces of darkness. It was a tough job but someone had to do it. And since Ash was the only active Keyblade bearer at the moment who wasn't busy with an agenda what other choice was there?

"So, will you do it?" asked Merlin who had just finished explaining all the details to the party.

"Get the chance to travel in space and come across new worlds while fighting against the Heartless? Of course I'll do it!" Ash said with fiery determination in his eyes.

His answer put a smile on everyone's faces.

But soon the ebony haired teenager realized that there was a small hole in his plan. "But first...I need a ship."

A big grin grew on Cid's face upon hearing this. "Just leave that to old Cid here."

Ash blinked at the blonde Gummi ship mechanic and titled his head to the side in confusion. "Huh?"

{...}

Moments later, the party gathered around at the hangar where all of the Gummi ships in Radiant Garden were docked at and worked on by Cid himself. The ship dock was quite big, stretching on for what seemed like miles. After talking with Scrooge McDuck, a business-savvy duck that ran an intergalactic trading company, Ash could understand that a lot of ships were required to funnel goods, services, and even people between the various worlds. Everywhere he looked there was a Gummi ship, many of which Cid proudly mentioned that he had built himself. The Pokémon prodigy was pretty amazed as to how many ships his older friend had built, especially considering how much they varied in shape and size. And it was even more surprising that the man was actually going to let him borrow a ship on the condition that he promised not to crash it against an asteroid. Cid was still pissed off at Sora, Donald, and Goofy for damaging six of his ships fairly badly in their last adventure. It took even a master mechanic like Cid weeks to fix them!

Once Ash promised Cid that he'd be more careful than the last group, the blonde man showed him the Gummi ship that he was going to using on his adventure. "Well, here it is—" Standing before the Keyblade wielder was a ship of average size.

There was nothing too special about it at first glance. Its body structure was completely white with blue wings, a narrow cone extending from the front of the ship in a diamond shape, ending in a pyramidal tip. The cockpit had three seats, one in front and the other two mounted in a slightly higher position behind it. However, it did have Cid's face on the side to give it some character. But other than that, it looked like a simple-design Gummi ship. "—the Mark XII Shera-my latest creation. You can borrow her for the time being. Those weapons mounted above and below the ends of the wings are cannons known as Thundara-Gs. They can be fired separately, in pairs, or in bursts of four. I equipped this ship with four engines on the back; they should definitely be enough to keep you in one piece in a fight."

"Thanks, Cid." the Keyblade wielder said smiling. "And I'll promise to bring it back to you in one piece." he assured the older male.

"You'd better." The blonde man shot him a glare.

Ash sweat dropped.

"In any case—here!" Cid pulled out two devices from his pants pocket and held them out towards the young teen. One was his Pokégear and the other was...his Pokégear? "I made a few adjustments to your Pok-whatever the hell you call it. It can scan any sort of Heartless and input its information into the database system. Not only that it is also a communicator and a transporter." He gave all the details in a single sentence. "And in case you happen to break or lose your damn device I made ya a spare." he added.

Ash smiled again at his friend. "Thanks, Cid! I really appreciate it." he said before accepting the two Pokégears from him.

Cid hid a smile.

Once the former Pokémon Trainer carefully tucked away the two devices into the inside pocket of his new jacket, Merlin walked up and approached him. "Now then, do you know what your top priority is lad?" he asked while stroking his white beard with a hand.

"Not really, to be honest. Ahehehe." said the young male with a nervous laugh.

"It's all right my dear boy. I'll fill you in."

Ash felt rather relieved, he'd had his share of vague instructions before and regretted it every time afterwards.

"It's of the utmost importance that you find the keyhole in each world you come across and seal it away as soon as possible. It prevents the Heartless from consuming the world, plunging it into darkness." the old wizard instructed.

"All right," The raven haired teenager will keep that in mind. "Anything else?"

Merlin thought for a second until something struck his mind. "Oh yes, I do believe this might come in handy for you on your journey."

***POOF***

In a blink of an eye, a special yellow gem of some sort appeared before Ash's eyes and floated into his hands. It had a small lightning bolt emblem on it. "What is this?" asked the startled Keyblader while studying the yellow gem in his hands very closely.

"It's a Summoning Gem."

"A Summoning what?"

"A Summoning Gem," Merlin repeated. "It will come in handy when you need it." It wasn't much of an explanation. But Merlin had hinted that it was really important. "But for now, I suggest that you keep it safe somewhere." the man strongly advised.

"O...k..." Ash simply pocketed the magical gem into his jeans pocket.

"You will come across similar gems like that on your journey so keep that in mind." A nod came from the young male. "And you may also encounter people in different worlds that can teach you new spells." Merlin added.

"Like Cura and Fira?"

A nod confirmed it.

"All right, I'll keep an eye out for them as well." the Keyblade wielder smiled.

Merlin returned the smile and said, "Good luck on your journey, lad."

"Thanks. I'll do my best!"

Soon it was the Restoration Committee's turn to wish the former Pok mon Trainer the best of luck on his new adventure. Leon spoke up first. "Take care of yourself."

"Kick some Heartless butt for me!" came Yuffie's reply.

"If you ever get tired please stop by and rest. You're always welcome here." Aerith offered a warm smile.

Tifa might not have said something, but she did show that she wished him the best of luck in his journey with a smile.

"All right, enough horsing around. Get your damn ass out of here already. You're wasting time!" Ash laughed at Cid in amusement. That guy sure knew how to ruin a moment though his smile caused Ash to do the same.

Once the ebony haired teen said his good-byes to his friends, he boarded the Mark XII Shera Gummi ship and took his leave.

{...}

**Space.** It's really, really, really big and spacey - just like in the books. The stars were shining so bright, Ash couldn't help but compare them to Christmas lights. The galaxy itself was so empty and quiet, filled with many wonders. It was quite a sight.

Ash can't believe he was actually in space. It felt like a dream a child's dream, to be more precise. But here he was - traveling in a Gummi ship - through space - in order to protect the worlds from the Heartless. What a magical experience. If his friends and family were here with him they would've enjoyed the scenery too. But thanks to the Heartless such an idea was nothing more than a mere thought.

What a shame...

But this wasn't the time to dwell on the past. The Keyblade bearer had more important matters to worry about - one of which was to make sure that no other world would suffer the same fate as his.

_Beep, beep, beeeeeeep! Beep, beep, beeeeeeep! Beep, beep, beeeeeeep!_

In less than one hour, his Gummi ship's sensors immediately picked up a nearby signal. The monitor screen quickly popped up and displayed a world - a world that had a giant statue on top of it, in a form of a bald kid in a robe with an arrow-like tattoo on his head. "Hmm, so this is my first stop, huh." Ash mumbled to himself smiling. "All right, let's go check it out." He flew his ship towards the world.

{...}

**Snow.** The whole area was covered in snow. Ash didn't know where he was, but judging by the huge mountains and copious amounts of snow around him it was pretty obvious that he had landed in a polar region. He could feel the cold breeze touching his skin and the freezing temperature around him. But for some strange odd reason he wasn't affected by it all that much. Was it because he was already wearing a jacket? Or was it because he wasn't a natural part of the world? Whatever the reason he decided to figure it out later.

For now, he needed to decide where he should head off to. Judging by the snow environment he didn't have a lot of options to work with. Most of the routes were blanketed by the snow; Ash knew that sometimes the snow was much deeper than it appeared so caution was quite necessary. The only thing he could go by were his own instincts which sometimes...got himself lost or led him into trouble.

"I suppose I should follow this trail until I reach town." he said aloud knowing that he was the only person in the whole area. "That's the only thing I could do for now..." He didn't sound all-too confident with his decision, but he still went with it nonetheless.

With no time to waste, the ebony haired teen headed off, completely unaware that a mysterious figure in a black overcoat on a nearby peak was watching his every move.

**Ten minutes later...**

"Man...Am I going the right way?" Ash asked himself for the umpteenth time since he started his hiking through the snowy mountain range. He checked his surroundings, but everywhere he looked all he saw was nothing but snow, snow, and more SNOW! It was getting a little frustrating. He would've thought by now he would at least come across a town or a small village, but it seems Lady Luck wasn't on his side. There was no sign of civilization anywhere.

The Keyblader let out a deep sigh, watching his breath mist in the cold weather. He guessed that he still wasn't used to navigating his way without a map or a PokéNav just yet. Figures... Old habits never died.

But instead of beating around the bush about it the former Pokémon Trainer continued to move forward even if it was a lost cause and leading him nowhere. There was no turning back now. He was bound to come across something or someone eventually. He just needed to keep pushing forward.

After some more walking and...more walking... Ash finally stumbled upon a new area - a patch of woodland. It was a nice change of view. He had been growing tired of seeing mountains and snow. All the trees and all the branches were covered in snow. It wasn't surprising since it appeared to be the winter season in this world.

Once the Keyblade bearer entered the tree line he began hearing a _sound_. He couldn't make out what it was because he was too far off from where it was coming from. But as he continued to head deeper into the frosty woods the sound became louder and louder. It sounded like a growl, but not in a threatening manner. No. It sounded more like a desperate call for help and fast.

In a quick sprint, Ash ran forward towards the direction of the sound. He might not know what he would come across, but he didn't care. Ignoring a cry of help was not in his nature.

He ran and ran...until he stopped in his tracks when he reached his destination and saw something that caught his attention. Just up ahead was some kind of white furry creature that he hadn't seen before in his life. It had a large body of a Pokémon like Beartic, but its tail was similar to that of a Mightyena. He didn't know what type of creature was it, but it looked like it was trying to protect something or _someone_ who was lying unconscious in the snow.

It was a girl - a young dark-skinned, brown haired girl who was close to his age - maybe a little bit older. She was dressed in some kind of tribe-like clothing with some areas exposing her mildly built but slender physique.

And by the looks of it...the dog-polar bear creature and the unconscious girl were completely surrounded by the...Heartless!

* * *

**A/N: Sorry if this chapter was a little short. But at least I got it done! The next chapter will be much longer. Anyway, can anyone guess who was the girl and what world Ash's in? And like most of you supported I didn't add in Ash's training days but I did give you all a little sample between him and Leon. But don't worry, though. Some of the chapters will have flashbacks of Ash's training days with Final Fantasy cast. Just be a little patient with me. Please R & R! Thank you! I'm off to write the next chapter for PokéHearts so wish me luck!**

**P.S.** - **Give the proofreading and editing credit to my beta-reader,** _Vandenbz_**.**

**Aoi Hyoudou** (formerly known as Johan07)


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